CLAWSON, Mich. (AP) — Jill Biden wasted no time after stepping up to the microphone at a suburban Detroit restaurant.
“Some have come to Detroit recently and thrown some insults, but from what I’ve seen this is a vibrant, thriving city,” she said. It was a swipe at Republican Donald Trump, who recently targeted the most populous city in a critical battleground state in the Midwest.
The first lady was back on the campaign trail for the first time in months, but stopped short of urging Democrats to support her husband, President Joe Biden. Instead, she is now focusing her energy on boosting Vice President Kamala Harris, who endorsed Biden for president after he dropped his re-election bid. On Tuesday, the first lady wrapped up a five-day trip through five battleground states.
While the race itself has changed, what remains unchanged for Jill Biden is her attempt to highlight the contrasts with Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, in the hope that Democrats can keep the former president out of the White House and help continue the legacy of to keep her husband.
It’s one reason why she reminded the roughly 150 supporters at a Harris campaign event at the restaurant in Clawson, Mich., about 20 miles north of Detroit, that the former president had insulted Detroit days earlier by calling it “a mess’ while he was at work. give a speech there.
The first lady is using her campaign speeches to validate Harris
Before launching into Trump a few times, the first lady spends most of her speech pumping up Harris, even talking about how they’ve “bonded” over a lot of things over the past four years.
“One was how we lost our mothers to cancer, both long before we no longer needed them,” Biden says.
In her campaign speech, which was edited to focus on the vice president, she said Harris’ background helped her be “a tough, compassionate and decisive leader.” She cites Harris’ high school experience helping a friend who was abused by her stepfather, and her career as a district attorney and California’s attorney general.
She is promoting Harris’ plans to drive down grocery and housing costs by going after “greedy” companies, as well as her proposal to give $25,000 down payment assistance to people trying to buy their first home.
Biden then turns to “what’s at stake for women in this election,” recalling how “stunned” and “devastated” she was in 2022 when the three justices Trump nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court helped a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
Harris has been the government’s point person on the issue of abortion and reproductive rights for the past two years.
“No one has to give up their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not tell women what to do,” Biden said, echoing the vice president. “As president, Kamala Harris will proudly sign a national law to restore reproductive freedom for every woman in every state of our country.”
“As president, Kamala Harris is going to fight for you,” says Jill Biden.
Biden turns a break in her class schedule into a swing-state blitz
A break in the fall schedule at Northern Virginia Community College, where the first lady teaches English and writes twice a week, allowed her to hit the road for the first time since the president announced in July he was leaving the race and withdrawing his support would express. Harris.
She gave speeches and met with small groups of campaign volunteers — and brought some of them cookies — as she stormed through the battlegrounds of Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin during a five-day blitz that ended Tuesday in Pennsylvania.
She joined volunteers who made calls to a phone bank in West Chester, a suburb of Philadelphia, and spoke at an event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, another suburb.
The first lady is expected to once again face Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in the final weeks of what remains a neck-and-neck contest.
The first lady takes on Trump
“I hate to even say it,” Biden said after the crowd gathered in a small Democratic campaign office in Madison, Wisconsin, groaned when she mentioned the former president’s name.
“Donald Trump wakes up every morning and thinks about only one person. WHO?” she asked. “Himself!” the audience shouted.
The first lady said a second Trump presidency would “lead to more chaos, more greed and more division.” He wants to cut taxes for rich guys like him while raising costs for everyone else.”
“And this is important: The next president will likely choose new Supreme Court justices. And our children and grandchildren will have to live with the consequences,” she added.
The first lady is encouraging supporters to vote early.
“As you know, this election is so close that every vote counts,” she told Pennsylvania phone bank volunteers before sitting down to make some phone calls herself.
After speaking at Montgomery County Community College, she met the president in Philadelphia, where he also fulfilled his new mission of boosting Harris.
“Kamala Harris has been a great vice president. She will also be a great president,” Biden said at a Democratic Party dinner.
